The film was one of Warhol's first experiments with filmmaking, and was created as an "anti-film". Warhol would later extend this technique to his eight-hour-long film Empire.[2]

Sleep premiered on January 17, 1964, presented by Jonas Mekas at the Gramercy Arts Theater as a fundraiser for Film-makers' Cooperative. Of the nine people who attended the premiere, two left during the first hour.[3]